Benedict Cumberbatch’s Powers in ‘Doctor Strange’ Revealed

Yesterday was the day that Doctor Strange fans have probably been waiting for their entire lives when Marvel finally unveiled our first official look at Benedict Cumberbatch in costume as the Sorcerer Supreme, and even some shots of him conjuring spells (the image above is so so so cool). We even got a look at what we think could be Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum, and following the release of several set photosa few weeks ago showing Strange working his way through a Nepal marketplace – it looks like the character’s transition from the comics is going to be fully realized onscreen here.

As fans of the character will also be aware, Strange’s power sets are pretty vast and different from each other, and his uses of magic can range from awe-inspiring to minimal. Courtesy of some new remarks from Marvel Studios President, Kevin Feige too, it looks like we have at least some idea of what powers we can expect to see Strange utilize in the 2016 film.

While recently speaking with EW, Feige revealed that a majority of Strange’s most iconic powers and mystical artifacts will be showcased in the film, including yes, the Cloak of Levitation:

“He can do a whole host of things, eventually. He does cast spells, which in the comics have very sort of tongue-twisty fun names. We don’t want to shy away from that, because that’s what makes Doctor Strange Doctor Strange. He has a Cloak of Levitation that allows him to fly, but he doesn’t fly like Superman or like Thor. It’s almost got a consciousness of its own, this cloak, which, again, gives us a superhero with a red cape — which we’ve seen a few times — but allows us to do it in a wholly unique and wholly original way. He can create these mandalas of light that he can use as shields and he can use as sort of weapons. He can create portalas that will open before your eyes that he can step through and go to other places around the world. And frankly, even in this film, we’ll only touch upon what a lot of his powers are.”

But how will Strange’s two most iconic artifacts – the previously mentioned Cloak and the Eye of Agamotto – feature into the film’s story?

“The Cloak of Levitation [and] the Eye of Agamotto are his two signature pieces. In this film, the Eye is a very important relic that can be quite dangerous if used in the wrong hands, because it has the ability to do any number of things, the most dangerous of which is, it can sort of manipulate probabilities. Which is also another way of saying, ‘screw around with time’ — which is part of our story.”

We learned yesterday that Mads Mikkelsen’s villain in the film is a fellow sorcerer like Strange, who breaks off from the heroic side of the mystical arts, and hopes to let over some of the most dangerous evil entities from other dimensions into our world. So it is possible that Mikkelsen’s character is trying to steal the Eye from Strange, since its power is so immense, and Feige cleverly mentions how dangerous it can be if it falls into the wrong hands.

Whether or not that ends up being the case is a mystery, but what I love most about these comments, and its evidence of what Marvel has done so brilliantly over the years, is Feige’s clear passion for the character and the drive to stay true to the comic book source material. The fact that we’re going to be seeing so many of Strange’s most iconic traits and powers onscreen, without ever shying away from the sometimes hokey side of it all makes this one of Marvel’s gutsiest projects yet. If it pays off though, then this could also be one of their coolest success stories.

Doctor Strange is set to hit theatres on November 4th, 2016.

Make sure to keep checking back for more updates — right here on GeekNation.